That Part of Town
by AnimeWolfGirl9
Summary: Ellie knew that she should have listened to her instinct; that she should have just stayed back at the boarding school. It was already close to morning anyway, so why didn't she just stay? She should have; maybe then, she wouldn't have had to live with the dire consequences from passing through that part of town.


First of all, I would just like to thank anyone that has read this far. I know that a lot of writers have done fanfictions on Riley's death, or revolving around it, but I would just like to ask that you give this one a chance before going back to searching through the other fanfictions. Thank you.

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters/places/anything mentioned from the Last of Us or anything else and everything belongs to its respective owners.**

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That Part of Town

Ellie continued to blindly run, tripping over roots that had grown through the cracked pavement. Tears blurred her vision, making it hard to see exactly where she was going.

_Go away!_ She thought angrily at the tears, feeling weak and helpless. Those were the two feelings that she had always hated the most. She was supposed to be strong, to be able to protect herself; _like that's ever going to happen._

She angrily wiped the tears away, wiping at her eyes until they were clear. They now stung because of the dirt that had gotten in them, but at least she could see.

She stopped running for a moment, taking in her surroundings. The pavement beneath her was split into millions of tiny cracks, reminding her of a spider's web. Vines and foliage grew up from the cracks, fighting to take any sunlight that existed. The chains of the old carousel clanged in the distance, making her feel even more on edge.

It would be completely dark if not for the light from the carousel. They had turned the power on a few hours ago, when they had first visited. It was one light, illuminating all that was around her.

The only sounds she could really hear were her deep breaths, and the chains of the carousel. There was no clicking, no sounds of anyone following her. She was completely alone.

A bitter laugh left her at the realization, and she felt sadness enter her again. Seeing the carousel, the cracked pavement, even the dead skeleton laying in the bushes… it was too much, too soon.

_It doesn't matter anymore,_ she thought, walking over to the lit carousel. She wasn't even sure if she cared anymore that someone could find her. It would all be over soon.

She looked down at her wrist, seeing the ugly red bite mark that had been left by a Runner. They had been attacked, and she had gotten bit. She was going to die soon. End of story.

_I should have never agreed to come,_ she thought, sitting down in one of the benches shaped like a boat on the carousel. Her mind wandered, back to earlier that night.

_Ellie's breath was coming in short gasps as she ran. An Infected was chasing her, but she was quickly getting away. She didn't know what chances her odds were if the creature did catch up to her; the only thing she had was her switchblade._

_ It was dark out, so she could barely see. Things that had no name went flying past her vision, blurring before she could figure out what they were. The clicks of the Infected were slowly dying in the distance._

_ She let out a soft laugh of victory and stopped running. She realized she had no idea where she was, but at the moment she had been running, it hadn't really mattered. All that had mattered then was getting away from the Infected. Now, she found herself wondering how she was going to get back._

_ She looked in all directions, seeing four different paths stretched out before her. She obviously didn't want to go down the one she had just come from; that would lead back to the Infected. The other three paths looked identical at first glance._

_ Her thoughts roamed for a moment, trying to come up with a solution to which path she should choose. She didn't have to choose, however, because a light suddenly lit up at the end of one of the paths. She stared at it, finding that the glow of the light was drawing her to it._

_ She took a step, but stopped with what she heard next: one click, directly behind her. She reached for her switchblade and turned around, but was too late. The Clicker tackled her to the ground with inhuman speed. She wrestled with it, finding that her strength was gone. The Infected was stronger than her. It reached for her neck and-_

_ Ellie gasped awake as she threw something off of her. She reached for her switchblade under her pillow and opened it, pointing it at whatever had been attacking her._

_ She stopped though when she realized that she recognized her attacker._

_ "Riley?" she asked, feeling disbelief course through her. She had to still be dreaming…_

_ "Ow," her friend replied, laughing, "I landed on my hip."_

_ "What-?" she started to ask, but stopped, "I thought I was bit."_

_ "I know," Riley was still laughing a bit, "It was kind of awesome."_

_ Ellie would have normally let out a good friendly argue towards her friend. Getting bit by an Infected wasn't something that was supposed to be taken lightly, but inside the walls of the boarding school they were confined to, they didn't even have a chance to get bit. Not in here, but when they snuck out sometimes…_

_ "You're not going to kill me, are you?" her friend asked, jolting her out of her thoughts. _

_She looked down at her hand and then back at her friend, realizing that she was still pointing her switchblade at Riley. She lifted her pillow, placing the precious object back where it belonged: hidden from the authorities so they couldn't take it away._

"_I haven't seen you in… I don't even know how long," she still felt slightly like she was in a dream. Her best friend hadn't been at the boarding school in…_

"_Forty-five days," her friend answered for her, "well, technically forty-six."_

_Ellie still stared dumbfounded at her friend, not sure of what to think. She had just gone missing and then reappeared._

"_Want to know what I've been up to?" Riley asked, making Ellie's suspicious and curiosity increase. _

_Riley had been trying to find out what she wanted to do with her life, and two of the things she definitely did not want to do were join the military or get kicked into the general population. Her friend had been trying to find a way out, and the first night Ellie had snuck out with her, they had ended up at an abandoned mall, being chased by Infected and then getting captured by the Fireflies. That's also when they had met the leader of the Fireflies, Marlene._

And when I got that letter from my mom,_ she thought, still feeling a bit worried about where her friend had been._

"_All this time, I thought you were dead," she didn't give Riley a direct answer; she only kept staring at her friend as if she would disappear again._

_Riley's gaze wandered to the floor, a rare gesture considering her friend usually spoke her mind. Her friend's gaze lingered on the window, where the rain was falling outside._

"_Hey, Ellie, I'm sorry, but…" her friend left off for a moment, not finding the right words, "I _had_ to do this."_

_Ellie sat back down on her bed, knowing this was another one of Riley's quests for freedom. She didn't blame her friend; she was still trying to figure out what she was going to do as well. She just wished she would have had a bit of a warning beforehand._

"_Come on," Riley grabbed her wrist and pulled her up from the bed, "I've got something to show you."_

"_What-?" she started to ask, but Riley cut her off._

"_Just trust me. I know you're going to love it."_

_Ellie shook her head and followed her friend out the door to her room. They wouldn't get caught; they had snuck out before without detection and she knew they could do it again._

_Once outside, she realized that the rain was starting to let up. The clouds were drifting away, letting the moon make an appearance and shedding light to lead them. She briefly caught a glimpse of something around Riley's neck before following after her friend._

"Maybe if I hadn't agreed to go, then none of this would have happened," she whispered, staring at the rotten wood flooring of the boat-bench.

She thought back to her dream, grasping at the wisps of it that still remained in her mind. She wondered if it had been some sort of warning. Normally, she wouldn't have believed in that sort of thing, but now…

Clicking noises nearby made her freeze. She looked over towards where she had been coming from and saw a lone clicker, swinging its head around as it searched for movement.

She silently got up from the bench and crouched down behind it, watching the Infected stumble with jerky movements toward the carousel. She didn't move, however, as it drew closer.

Her gaze wandered to the bite mark on her wrist again, and she smiled sadly. A large part of her mind was just thinking "hey, I'm already infected so why not just end it here?" That part, however, was quickly extinguished by only a few words:

"_Make me proud."_ Those last words from the letter her mother had written her gave her some strength. She knew she had to get out of here, even if she died a few meters away, it still would be better than just sitting around.

"_Let's just wait it out,"_ Riley's voice in her head made her flinch, _"We can go crazy together."_

"Except I don't think I'm going crazy yet," she whispered, and then started to back away from the wooden bench. She could sneak out from the carousel and make her way back to the boarding school.

_That won't work; they would know I'm infected the moment I get back,_ she mapped out an alternate route in her mind, all the while weaving silently through the horses and other creatures on the carousel to get to her destination; _Maybe I can make my way to Winston's. It's a bit further, but I could ask him to put me out of my misery and bury me if I haven't turned already. If not-_

Her thought was sharply interrupted when a loud _clang_ rang throughout the silence, breaking it. She swore when she realized she had run into one of the broken chains of the carousel.

The clicks of the Infected grew rapid and deadly as it turned its head towards her and started to run. She ran as well, weaving as fast as she could through the broken chains, wishing Riley would be there to help her this time.

_Except she can't help me; I'm all alone._

The light from the carousel was fading quickly as she ran. Her loud footsteps, however, drew the attention of the Clicker. She knew she couldn't stop running because the Clicker would catch up to her, and then it would be over. However, if she continued to run, the Infected would overtake her soon enough. Either way, she was done for.

The pavement suddenly gather underneath her feet, making her swear again as she tumbled onto the ground, scraping up her arms and legs. The pain was instant, but what made her more concerned was the Infected right behind her.

It came screeching at her, clicking its insane head off as it jerked towards her. She knew she wouldn't be able to get up in time. This was it. She remembered the one time she had been told that when you die, your life flashed before your eyes.

_That's a lie,_ she thought, realizing it would have been better to see her life flash before her eyes in order to distract her from the pain that would soon be spreading through her neck. Instead, she got the messed up version of dying with no life flashing before her eyes, dying with all the pain she would feel as she would depart slowly from this messed up world…

Except the pain never came. A few gunshots rang out, and the Infected fell dead before her eyes. She looked at the source of the gunshots, finding another familiar figure that she wouldn't have thought of seeing in a long while.

"Marlene?" her breath came out short, making the name barely a whisper. The woman who had saved her, however, heard it.

"Ellie, are you-?" Marlene started to ask, coming towards her, but stopped suddenly; the maternal look in her eyes being replaced by stone.

Ellie's eyes widened as she realized what Marlene was staring at. She pressed her wrist up against her shorts, stemming the blood flow a bit.

"Marlene, I can-" she didn't know how to continue. Her gaze fell to the ground. This was what she had wanted, wasn't it? For someone to end her misery? But when the time actually came, she found that she was scared. She didn't want to die, and at the same time, she did. It didn't make any sense, but she felt it.

"You got bit, didn't you?" Marlene asked her, not moving an inch towards her. Ellie nodded, feeling tears prick at the back of her eyes again. She stopped them, somehow, from ever making an appearance.

"Are you going to-?" Ellie started to ask, but stopped when a voice rang out from Marlene's radio communicator.

"_Is everything alright over there?"_ the voice asked, making her freeze and clam up.

"Yes, everything's fine. Just a lone Clicker, nothing more," Marlene replied and the radio fell silent again.

Ellie took a deep breath and looked off to the side, finding that she could see the light from the carousel. Its picture flashed through her mind, making her close her eyes to view it. Yes, maybe that was a better way to die, to have a pleasant picture in her mind while she left.

Footsteps coming closer made her open her eyes in surprise. Marlene was kneeling beside her now and was pulling something out of a backpack. She saw it was gauze and some alcohol.

"What are you-?" she started to ask, but the older woman shushed her, making her fall silent.

Marlene gently pulled her wrist away from her shorts, revealing the bite mark that was now smeared with dried blood. She ripped off a piece of gauze and wet it with the alcohol.

"When did you get this?" Marlene asked gently as she cleaned the bite mark. The alcohol stung a bit, but it somehow comforted Ellie.

"A few hours ago. Riley came back to the boarding school and-"

"Riley?" Marlene cut her off quickly in surprise, "Where is she?"

Ellie's gaze fell to the cracked pavement, away from the older woman and away from the bit mark now on her wrist. Her free hand went to her pocket, which would have normally been filled with her switchblade if it hadn't been back in her room, but was now filled with a pendent. She pulled it out of her pocket, handing it to Marlene a moment later.

Marlene got the hidden meaning and sighed, one all too knowing of the death that had been coursing through the Fireflies. But now, death had also taken her best friend.

Marlene was still cleaning the bite mark, but she stopped suddenly, a strange look on her face. Ellie knew that if she would have known the older woman better, then she would have probably understood the look. She didn't know Marlene that well though, which was why the look confused her.

"What is it?" she asked, watching as the older woman put the gauze and alcohol away. She had handed the pendent back to Ellie, who was now putting it back in her pocket with the picture.

"You said you got bit a few hours ago," Marlene repeated what she had said earlier and Ellie nodded.

"Yeah, we did. Riley… she got bit too… and I had to…" Ellie cut off, not able to finish her sentence. She bit her lip, not wanting to cry again. She was tired of being weak. She should have been able to protect them, but she failed.

Marlene was staring at her wrist, which made Ellie puzzled again. She was infected, so that was nothing new. What was, then?

"I'm going to take you back to the mobile camp, alright Ellie?" Marlene's question sent panic through her.

"Marlene, it's too great of a risk! What if I-?" Marlene cut her off as she helped her up.

"Ellie, I need to be sure of something. If I'm not right, then we'll give you something to ease the pain so that it doesn't hurt if we have to…" Marlene started to explain what she was doing to Ellie, who just went along with her. She didn't really have anywhere else to go.

The tests took hours, and Ellie hadn't gotten any sleep. They had finally ended when the sun had started to paint the sky red. She was currently staring out at the sky, lying down on a stretcher that almost compared with a bed. She was curious to why she hadn't turned by now.

_Maybe it just takes longer for some people, _the thought went through her mind as she turned and tossed on the stretcher, trying to find sleep but getting none.

The flap behind her opened, making her turn around and sit up as Marlene came in with a few items. Some of them looked like clothes, and then there was clean gauze.

"You can get changed into these in a minute," Marlene explained softly, wrapping her bite mark in the clean gauze, "then you can come out of the tent."

The leader of the Fireflies left them, leaving her in silence. She felt confused as she got changed, wondering why they wanted her in new clothes.

_Maybe they just want me to be clean in order to die?_ She thought; even though it didn't make much sense, it was the only thing she could think of at the moment.

She glanced down at her new attire, which consisted of a long-sleeved black shirt underneath of a short-sleeved red one. She had changed into a pair of jeans that Marlene had left, but kept her old black and white tennis shoes. She noticed with some pleasure that she could no longer see the bite mark on her arm; the long sleeves of the black shirt covered it, making her seem almost normal.

She hesitated at the tent flap, wondering what she would see beyond it. She didn't remember much, since she had been dazed when they had brought her in. She truthfully didn't have much strength left, but figured that she should do what Marlene said.

She opened the flap of the tent and walked outside… and into another tent that was connected to the one she had just been into. That hadn't been much of a tour, but she found Marlene easily enough.

Marlene ordered the other Fireflies in the tent to leave and then motioned for her to sit down. She did willingly so, feeling as if she was going to fall over. Silence entered the room for a few moments before Marlene spoke.

"Ellie, I know this is going to be hard for you to understand, especially after what you had to go through last night," Marlene's words prompted the thought _To me, it feels like the same day_, "but we ran a few tests, and have belief that you are… immune."

Marlene had hesitated on the last word, which had made Ellie's mind go blank. Immune? What did she mean? To the Cordyceps? But that was…

"Impossible," she whispered, feeling slightly freaked out. It felt like tiny bugs were crawling all over her, centering at the bite mark. She felt the urge to rip the newly fresh gauze off to try and get the bugs off, but she knew it was just her imagination.

"I know; that's why we needed to run those tests. You came back positive, but you haven't turned yet. This helps only to solidify our theory," Marlene explained, not calming her that much.

"But, immune?! Is this some kind of joke?! If I'm immune, then why didn't I…? Why did Riley have to…?" Ellie started to feel tears leak from her eyes again. She thought she had been over this, but she now knew she was wrong.

Marlene pulled her into a hug, letting her lay her head on her shoulder. She cried silently, feeling lost and not sure of what to do. Riley was gone, but she was allowed to live?

"I don't want to go back there," she whispered after a while, feeling slightly calmer, but knowing that one wrong word could send her emotions haywire again.

"I know, I know. You don't have to," Marlene whispered, calming her a bit. She wouldn't have to go back there. She wouldn't have to go back to where this horrible nightmare had occurred.

An hour later, Marlene gave her a backpack with a few essential supplies in it. She had informed her that she was going to stay with the Fireflies for a while, and that they would try to find a cure with her immunity; that made her feel a bit better. Whatever had happened to make her lose Riley would become a thing of the past.

"Wait, does that mean that I'm not going back to the boarding school?" she asked, and Marlene's nod made her both relieved and worried, "I left a few things there that are important. Do I have to leave them behind?"

Marlene started to hesitate, but Ellie stared up at her, wanting to go get her switchblade and a few other things from her room.

"You get sneak back in tonight and grab them. If the military has already cleared your room out though, I don't want you to go looking for them, understood?" Marlene laid down the rules pretty well, but Ellie agreed to them, "Also, I'll have a small group of three go with you, just so you don't get hurt."

Ellie waited all day, drifting in and out of sleep, but awoke just as it started to turn dark out. She got out of the tent she had been sleeping in and Marlene led her to her 'escorts' (which was what Ellie had dubbed them, since it sounded pretty cool).

"You be safe, alright?" Marlene made her promise before she could leave. Then came the long trek back to the boarding school.

Once there, getting in was easy enough; she used one of the secret routes that Riley and her had mapped out. She dismissed the thought, not wanting to feel broken then.

She found her room quickly and snuck in, relieved to find that the military hadn't cleaned it out yet. They might be wondering where she had gone off to, but she had a record of disappearing every now and then.

She quickly grabbed her switchblade from under her pillow and slipped it in her pocket. She had placed Riley's pendent in her backpack for now, not wanting it to get lost. She went about the room, gathering a few other things: her music player, the letter from her mom, and a few other basic essentials she thought she wanted or would need.

Ellie turned to leave the room but stopped when something caught her attention. She turned around and picked the object up. It was a picture that had been taken a week ago at Winston's. She and Riley were smiling for the camera, which they had found in Winston's stash of old things. It had worked, so they had taken a picture. They had gotten Winston to show them how to get the picture off of the camera so she could have it.

She placed the picture in her backpack with the pendent, and stood in the doorway. This would be the last time she would see her room, but she didn't mind that much. The only thing that she would miss would be the memories she had with Riley there. Of course, those would be coming with her too, but it was a sentimental thing.

She shook her head, ridding herself of the images.

_Riley, I found it. I found what you were looking for: another way out. I'm not going to let this be for nothing, I promise._

She walked out of the room and down the hallways, ready to join the small group of Fireflies outside.

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I wanted to get this out before the new single player DLC comes out, since I had this idea in my mind for a while. It is going to have a semi-sequel (called "What Kind of Help?") which will detail more on Ellie's thoughts before and during the scene when she first meets Joel. I'm hoping to get that out soon as well, but I can't make any promises. Thank you once again for reading this and I hope you tell me any thoughts in a review!

-AnimeWolfGirl9


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